Receipt of the James Moore Award

By Ed Demoney

[Editor's note: Ed Demoney is the second recipient of the James Moore Award that honors a VHTRC member who has both significant running accomplishments and gives back to the community. Ed sent an e-mail to several of us with his reaction to this honor. He has permited me to reproduce that message here.]

Receipt of the James Moore Award for 2000 is a high honor and deeply
appreciated. It is with great pride that I am associated with the
ultrarunner first honored by the award.

There is a sense of wonder and satisfaction in me as I continue running
ultras, the main question being the time I have left to continue getting
out on the trails. Being the oldest finisher at Capon Valley was an eye
opener, especially since I still feel youthful emotionally even if my
stride has shortened along with diminished leg turnover since I started
doing marathons in 1976 and my first 100 miler in 1979.

Now that I'm retired I've been privileged to spend a lot more time
"volunteering" than when I was gainfully employed. There are
immense rewards in helping some of the less fortunate members of our
society, whether the service is occasional or passionate. I should not
decry civic service in favor of charitable since I have been involved in
both over the years. I am pleased that I can now devote a major effort
to a Christian ministry.

It doesn't seem possible but it's been nearly six years of intensive
service with Food for Others and its emergency food services program in
Northern Virginia. Drafting a proposal recently I was a bit startled
at the magnitude of our current services, considering where we were in
1995 and that we are primarily supporting poor people in the richest
region of our country. Business is booming. I don't know whether
that's good or bad. I do know a lot of families with incomes of $10,000
a year or less have trouble surviving in Fairfax County where the median
family income is about $90,000. We can help these families when they
need food.

For the past 10 months we have dealt with an average of 385 emergencies
monthly at our warehouse, the largest share being those who visit us
monthly to pick up USDA commodities. The latter receive a small amount
of food, but important if you are living below 125% of poverty. We can
provide them with other staples where our supplies almost always exceed
demand, bread products for example.

Our volunteers distribute food at 16 sites in Northern Virginia. In
these high poverty neighborhoods Food for Others supports about 350
families on peak weeknights. Organizations using us as a food bank, 40
or more in a typical month, help another 1,400 families including a
substantial number of homeless individuals and poor kids receiving
nutritional education.

What's surprising is how our food distribution continues to increase.
Fortunately, we are able to collect more than 150,000 pounds of food
monthly to keep up with demand. We distributed almost 1.7 millions of
pounds of food for the 10 months ending April 30.

We couldn't accomplish our mission of feeding the hungry without
volunteers committed to public service. I'm just one of more than 600
involved with Food for Others, and the value of our services exceeded
$300,000 last year. Because so many are willing to support us with
their service, Food for Others is efficient and effective. Less than
one penny out of every revenue dollar goes to fundraising and
administration. We look real good in the CFC and United Way campaigns in
comparison with other nonprofits.

I'm pleased to be a member of another small but growing nonprofit. VHTRC would not be the great club it is if it weren't for the
willingness of its volunteers to be engaged in public service associated
with running and recreational areas in our region. I know volunteers
benefit as they enjoy a weekend at BRR or MMT.

Interestingly, all of you have chosen careers of public service, whether
governmental, educational or military. Perhaps this is why all of us
recognize the value of serving the public. No doubt this background
helps us to inspire others to give of themselves. At least we attract
the needed volunteers to our races, bolstered in part by people doing
community service in order to run races in the west.

Thanks again for the award. I shall treasure it and proudly display it
along with all the buckles I've earned over the years.